Device for determined batch-wise collection and discharge of articles

ABSTRACT

A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having cam-controlled collecting wings wherein below the distribution wheel is located the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signatures deliverd by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel.

United States Patent 19] Skogsberg [111 3,831,505 [451 Aug. 27, 1974 DEVICE FOR DETERMINED BATCH-WISE COLLECTION AND DISCHARGE OF ARTICLES [76] Inventor: Gunnar Skogsberg, Gosta Ekmans Vag 22, l-lagersten, Sweden 22 Filed: Mar. 5, 1973' 21 Appl. No; 338,167

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Mar. 10, 1972 Sweden 3097/72 [52] US. Cl 93/93 DP, 93/93 R, 270/58 [51] Int. Cl 1331b 1/98 58] Field of Search... 93/93 DP, 93 c, 93 R, 93 D; 270/54, 55, 56, 57, 5s

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,266,737 5/1918 Wood et a1. 93/93 DP 3,166,206 1/1965 Porter et al..... 3,429,240 2/1969 Kawai et a1 93/93 DP FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 196,294 5/1965 Sweden Primary ExaminerRoy Lake Assistant Examiner-James F. Coan Attorney, Agent, or Firml-iill, Gross, Simpson, Van Santen, Steadman, Chiara '& Simpson ABSTRACT A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having cam-controlled collecting wings wherein below the distribution wheel islocated the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signatures deliverd by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge endthereof, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel.

4 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAUBZ'IIBH 3.831.505 sum aur e PATENTEU AUG2 7 m4 SHEET 5 0F 6 DEVICE FOR DETERMINED BATCH-VVISE COLLECTION AND DISCHARGE OF ARTICLFS The present invention refers to a device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, particularly parts or signatures of books, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with desired prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form after folding and cutting the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having cam-controlled collecting wings.

According to prior technique for the production of printed articles containing more than one part or signature the production is carried out such that the signatures being comprised in the printed article or preferably the book are printed one or a few at a time in the desired number, after which they are put together in sequence more or less manually to a block, which after binding results in the finished book. This method of sorting is very detailed and time-consuming and requires consequently a great contribution of manual working labour which greatly increases cost of production of books.

Especially in the production of so-called pocket books which are intended to be produced in a simplified way so as to be sold at a low price and therefore instead of the standard cover binding only are provided with a glued cardboard cover, the costs for sorting the signatures by manual handling will cause the sales price to be very high.

Therefore, lately the need to provide a printing machine which facilitates a direct mechanical production from a paper web to completed printed articles has been more and more insistent. In this connection the signatures incorporated in a book would be printed on the paper web in such a mutual relation that after cutting they are collected block-wise and bound together.

Attempts have been made earlier to solve this problem to collect signatures in determined batches, but no reliable device which can operate at an acceptable high speed, hitherto has been developed.

Very recently it has been all the more of immediate interest to solve the problem of sorting after a binding machine has been presented, which is capable of providing blocks or batches of signatures with a glued cover of cardboard at a significantly greater speed than before.

The main object of the invention is to provide a device which facilitates the collection of articles, preferably parts or signatures of a book, all without manual handling, and thereby eliminates the disadvantage which resides in the time-consuming, manual sorting thereof.

Therefore, the invention refers to a device of the kind mentioned which is substantially distinguished in that substantially vertically below the distribution wheel is located the receiving and of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely control-1v lable manner the signatures delivered by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel.

Thus, the device according to the invention makes it possible to produce the book quite mechanically in that after the printing of a paper web according to a determined pattern and finishing folding and cutting the signatures incorporated in the book are collected in desired sequence of order to a batch or a block which is forwarded to a binding machine.

By way of an example the invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a complete printing machine for totally automatic production of a book up to the binding stage, in which printing machine the device according to the invention is included in the end stage,

FIG. 2 is a side view partially in cross section of a device according to the invention, but for certain details which have been removed,

FIG. 3 is a cross section through the device along the line IIl-Ill in FIG. 2 as viewed from the right, having the conveyor belts between the cutting knife and the distribution wheelillustrated, which were omitted in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 illustrates in enlarged scale a part of FIG. 2, viz, the discharge end of the discharge conveyor and the star wheel,

FIG. 5 illustrates the bottom part of the device as viewed from the discharge side and embodying the star wheel and its associated transfer conveyor, and

FIG. 6 illustrates a partial top plan view of the device according to the invention, taken along the line IVIV in FIG. 2.

The printing machine briefly illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a supply roll 1 from which a paper web 2 is drawn through the whole machine through one or several printing units and possible succeeding drying devices 7 before running down to a cutting device 4 for being cut. The printing machine comprises more ex-. actly two printing units, each having a printing cylinder 50 and 5b for applying printing on the paper web, one cylinder for each face of the paper web, and two adjoining drying devices 7a and 7b, respectively, for drying the applied printing after each course of printing. As known, the printing cylinders 5a and 5b are provided with printing plates not closer illustrated, a basic requirement for the invention being, however, partly that the print fields or the text sides are so mutually arranged on these plates that not only the pages in each signature follow in the right order after each other after the longitudinal cutting, overlapping and folding of the paper web, but also, that the different signatures follow after each other in the desired page order after cross cutting. Thus another condition must be that the surfaces'of the printing cylinders are sufficiently large to hold at least all signatures of a book which is intended to be produced, possibly more. After the longitudinal cutting most often required, the paper web is then folded by means of a folding device 3 into a number of parallel subwebs which are superpositioned such that the sequence of signatures is formed, in each of which the text pages follow in intended order, and thereafter the signatures in the sequence are separated from each other by means of the cutting device 4. Although the cutting device 4 of course can be performed in many different ways it is here illustrated as being a pair of knife cylinders.

Another requirement for the machine illustrated in the drawings is that the number of signatures which are comprised in each book being produced, is maintained invariable and in the present case amounts to 10. The maximum number of printing pages in each signature has further been decided to amount to 24, thus corresponding to six subwebs of the paperweb 2 which are superpositioned. In its turn, this limits the maximum number of book pages to 240, but a change to fewer pages is easily obtained by removing one or several subwebs, i.e., reducing the number of pages in each signature with one or several multiples.

ln this connection it should also be noted that the size of the illustrated printing machine preferably can be made such that large text pages of two books or even three in the so called mini pocket size can be held simultaneously on the cylinders 5a and 511, so called two up and three up printing. The cutting of the superpositioned subwebs of the paper web 2 is then performed such that with each product referred to in the above-stated as signature, it is to be understood two and three signatures, respectively, arranged in a row and subjected to subsequent collection and transfer as a unit and not separated from each other until immediately before the binding.

In order thereafter to mechanically handle these cut signatures there is, according to the invention, a distribution wheel disposed after the cutting device in the direction of feeding. Preferably, this wheel may be of a design known per se, viz, having a number of, in the present case five, arcuately bent receiving compartments ll distributed around its periphery. The wheel 10 is rotatably mounted on a horizontal shaft 12 substantially vertically below the cutting device 4, and where appropriate preferably also parallel to the direction of the axis of the pair of knife cylinders 4, to receive a progressively in each of its compartments the cut signatures. Advantageously the number of signatures in the books to be produced in the machine in view of the printing units, corresponds to or constitutes an integer of the maximum number of compartments 1 1.

In order to reliably guide the cut signatures from the cutting device 4 downwardly to the compartments ll of the distribution wheel 10 a conveyor belt set 23 is in the present case disposed for acceleration and controlled letting down of the signatures in the individual receiving compartments 11. I

Vertically below the distribution wheel 10 a discharge conveyor 14 is disposed which is directed substantially horizontally and in the present case runs parallel to the direction of the axis of the distribution wheel 10. At the receiving end of this conveyor 14 is situated adjacent the wheel 10 a pusher member 15 which expels the signatures one after the other from the compartments 11 on the wheel 10 so as to fall down on the conveyor 14 with a predetermined overlap. The

conveyor 14 is preferably drive from a main drive device (not illustrated) for, i.a., the pair of knife cylinders 4 through a power transmission, for example comprising a chain transmission 17 which is coupled to a variator 18, preferably a mechanical so-called planetary variator, and further chain transmissions l9 and 20.

At the discharge end of the conveyor 14 a star wheel 21 having a number of outwardly directed collecting wings 22 is disposed. The star wheel 21 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 23 in a frame 24, which shaft is disposed substantially on the level with the upper part of the conveyor 14 and transversely to the same.

The collecting wings 22 of the star wheel, preferably constituted by plane plates, are rotatably mounted on horizontal axes between two flanges 28a and 28b at the ends of a hub 27 secured to the shaft of the star wheel, and are biased by means of springs 29 through follower means 26 against a fixed cam surface 30 which is disposed on one side of the star wheel such that they are imparted a pivotal movement relative the star wheel responsive to the cam surface when the star wheel is rotated. The star wheel 21, which through a belt transmission 32 is driven from the shaft 12 of the distribution wheel 10, driven by the transmission 16, runs in synchronism with the distribution wheel 10.

More exactly, the cam surface is so shaped in the part closest to the discharge conveyor that during operation each collecting wings 22 when approaching the conveyor 14 first turns forward in the direction of rotation of the wheel 21 such that the wing tip will lie closely on top of the last signature, in the present case the 10 signature, which is being collected on the just preceding wing but in front of the following, first signature of the next batch which is to be collected on this wing in question. The cam surface then is to control this wing during the continued, constant rotating movement of the wheel 21 so that the tip of the wing substantially remains at the end of the conveyor substantially on the level with the upper part thereof, while the last signatures pass under the wing and down on the stack or batch on the preceeding wing. I

Not until the pile on the preceding wing has been completed the controlling action of the curve 30 is changed in such a way that the whole wing 22 and its beginning new stack of signatures is given a translatory movement downwardly a distance in the direction towards a transfer device to a following machine, preferably a transfer conveyor 31, at a speed somewhat lower than the rotation of the wheel 21. On the cam surface 30 there follows a portion which is shaped so as to give the wing 22 a relatively rapid pivotal movement outwardly, such that the wing 22 quickly will leave the contact with its stack when same is delivered onto the transfer conveyor 31.

Said above-mentioned drive train for the discharge conveyor 14, being branched off from the shaft 12, is to be so adjusted and dimensioned relative the movement of the star wheel and its collecting wings 22 by the aid of the variator 18 that just as the determined number of signatures for a book, viz, 10 has been discharged beyond the end of the conveyor 14 during collection on a wing 22 located in position in front of said end, the wing 22 following next thereto reaches with its extreme end the flow of overlapping signatures to interrupt the same and start the collection of the next batch or stack of signatures.

It is also suitable to provide at each side of the transfer conveyor 31 vertical, adjustable guide bars 33, 34 close to the discharge end of the conveyor 14 and close to the star wheel 21, respectively, in order to achieve a collection of the batch of signatures being laid on the wing 22.

In order to achieve an automatic adjustment of the simultaneousness in the function of the discharge conveyor l4 and the star wheel 21 a radially directed arm 37 is provided on the end of the shaft 12 of the distribution wheel 10 closest to the star wheel 21. This arm is adapted to pass once per turn between the limbs of a so-called reader fork 38 which in electrical way registers each passage of the arm 37. At the discharge end of the conveyor 14 a photocell 39 or a similar scanning means which is adapted to register the passage of an indicating sign is mounted. This indicating sign is printed externally of a determined signature in each batch of signatures which are discharged in a continuous flow on the conveyor 14. Together with the reader fork 38 the photocell 39 is coupled to a suitable control means (not illustrated) which in turn is arranged to control the speed of the conveyor 14 by means of the variable speed driving means 18 in response to possible, arising discrepancy between the discharged signature batches and the wings 22 of the star wheel 21.

The device according to the invention described above operates in the following way. The paper web 2 which after having been provided with printing in the printing units by the printing cylinders 5a,.5b and dried in the drying devices 7a, 7b is then cut longitudinally by knife means, not shown in the drawing, the sub-webs thus formed are brought in a position on top of each other and then passed to a folding device 3. After the passage through this folding device the prepared products of signatures are brought to the pair of knife cylinders 4 for the concluding cross cutting. The cut signatures or products then enter the conveyor belt set 13 where they are accelerated to required extent in order to be able to be dropped in proper order to the individual receiver compartments 11 in the underlying distribution wheel 10. When each receiver compartment 11 of the wheel 10 which is provided with a signature arrives down to the bottom part of the wheel the signatures are pushed out of the compartments 11 by means of the pusher means 15 such that the signatures fall down one after the other on the underlying discharge conveyor 14 and in consequence thereof will lie on the conveyor with desired, predetermined overlapping.

The conveyor 14 then delivers the continuous flow of signatures in direction towards the star wheel 21, which by means of the wings 22 collects during its rotation on each of these wings the exact number of signatures which is to be included in each book. The signature block thus collected on each wing 22 is finally let down by the wings on the transfer conveyor 31 for being forwarded to a following cover attaching machine. Finally it should be noted that although one especially preferred embodiment of the invention has been described above, many detail changes and measures of adaption for different requirements are of course obvious to the artisans within the scope of the following claims.

What I claim is:

l. A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, particularly parts or signatures of books, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with desired prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form after folding and cutting the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having camcontrolled collecting wings, characterized in that substantially vertically below the distribution wheel is located the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signature delivered by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel, the wings of the star wheel directed outwardly from the same, said wings being rotatably mounted to a hub and springbiased through follower means against a fixed cam surface, characterized in that the cam surface is contoured such that during the rotation of the star wheel each wing when approaching the conveyor firstly is turned forward in the direction of rotation of the star wheel so that the wing tip will come to lie closely on top of the last signature, which is fed for collection on the closest preceding wing, but in front of the succeeding first signature in the next batch which is to be collected on said wing in question, which thereafter during the continued rotation of the star wheel is guided such that the tip thereof substantially remains at the end of the conveyor at the level of the upper part thereof, while the last signatures belonging to the just preceding batch pass under said wing, and then, after the completion of the preceding stack, the wing is caused to make a translatory movement downwardly a distance in the direction towards the transferring means and when a whiplike turning movement in order that the wing rapidly will leave the whole collected batch on the transfer conveyor.

2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the distribution wheel is driven from a main drive through a drive device and'that the star wheel is driven in a determined synchronous relation to the distribution wheel through a power transmission, while the discharge conveyor is driven by means of a second drive device which is branched off from the distribution wheel and comprises a variable speed driving means.

3. A device according to claim 2, characterized in that an indicator means is disposed on the shaft of the distribution wheel said means being adapted to pass between the legs of a registering reading means, preferably a so-called reader fork and that a scanner means, such as a photocell is arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor and adapted to register the passage on the conveyor of an indicating sign on a predetermined signature in each batch thereof, the reader fork and the photocell being coupled to a common control means for changing the speed of the discharge conveyor by means of the variable speed driving means in response to possible discrepancy between the registration of the photocell and the reader fork.

4. A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, particularly parts or signatures of books, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with desired prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form after folding and cutting the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having camcontrolled collecting wings, characterized in that substantially vertically below the distribution wheel is 10- cated the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signatures delivered by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said conveyor including belt means driven at different speeds, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel. 

1. A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, particularly parts or signatures of books, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with desired prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form after folding and cutting the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having cam-controlled collecting wings, characterized in that substantially vertically below the distribution wheel is located the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signature delivered by the distribution wheel in a continuoUs overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel, the wings of the star wheel directed outwardly from the same, said wings being rotatably mounted to a hub and spring-biased through follower means against a fixed cam surface, characterized in that the cam surface is contoured such that during the rotation of the star wheel each wing when approaching the conveyor firstly is turned forward in the direction of rotation of the star wheel so that the wing tip will come to lie closely on top of the last signature, which is fed for collection on the closest preceding wing, but in front of the succeeding first signature in the next batch which is to be collected on said wing in question, which thereafter during the continued rotation of the star wheel is guided such that the tip thereof substantially remains at the end of the conveyor at the level of the upper part thereof, while the last signatures belonging to the just preceding batch pass under said wing, and then, after the completion of the preceding stack, the wing is caused to make a translatory movement downwardly a distance in the direction towards the transferring means and when a whiplike turning movement in order that the wing rapidly will leave the whole collected batch on the transfer conveyor.
 2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the distribution wheel is driven from a main drive through a drive device and that the star wheel is driven in a determined synchronous relation to the distribution wheel through a power transmission, while the discharge conveyor is driven by means of a second drive device which is branched off from the distribution wheel and comprises a variable speed driving means.
 3. A device according to claim 2, characterized in that an indicator means is disposed on the shaft of the distribution wheel said means being adapted to pass between the legs of a registering reading means, preferably a so-called ''''reader fork'''' and that a scanner means, such as a photocell is arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor and adapted to register the passage on the conveyor of an indicating sign on a predetermined signature in each batch thereof, the reader fork and the photocell being coupled to a common control means for changing the speed of the discharge conveyor by means of the variable speed driving means in response to possible discrepancy between the registration of the photocell and the reader fork.
 4. A device for determined batch-wise collecting and discharging of articles, particularly parts or signatures of books, in a printing machine for allowing direct automatic transfer of the printed articles for binding in a subsequent binding machine, at least one web of paper provided with desired prints at predetermined places being discharged from the printing machine in order to form after folding and cutting the successive signatures of the book to be produced, said device comprising a distribution wheel having receiver compartments for receiving the cut signatures which are discharged from the printing machine, and a star wheel having cam-controlled collecting wings, characterized in that substantially vertically below the distribution wheel is located the receiving end of a substantially horizontal discharge conveyor, running in the direction of the rotational axis of said distribution wheel and adapted to support in maintained order and in a precisely controllable manner the signatures delivered by the distribution wheel in a continuous overlapping sequence and carry them to the star wheel at the discharge end thereof, said conveyor inclUding belt means driven at different speeds, said star wheel being mounted on a horizontal axis transversely to the direction of discharge of said signatures and adapted to rotate in a direction opposite to that of said discharge conveyor, the signatures supported by the latter being located with such mutual edge spacing that an absolutely reliable desired collection and separation of the signature sequence is allowed by the wings of said star wheel. 